The following are some of the styles of shalwar kameez.
Anarkali suit modeling an Anarkali suit The shalwar kameez known as the
Anarkali suit is named after the court dancer from
Lahore, Pakistan. This suit has a timeless style which has become very popular. It is made up of a long, frock-style top and features a slim fitted bottom. This style of suit links the Indian subcontinent with the women's
firaq partug (frock and shalwar) of northwestern Pakistan and Afghanistan and to the traditional women's
clothing of parts of
Central Asia. It also links to the Punjab region, where the Anarkali suit is similar to the anga and the Peshwaz worn in
Jammu.
Afghanistan suits The styles of shalwar kameez worn in Afghanistan include various styles of
khet partug,
perahan tunban and
Firaq partug worn by
Pashtuns,
Tajiks, and
Hazaras. The shalwar tends to be loose and rests above the ankles. File:Clothing worn by most Pashtun males.jpg|Perahan tunban worn by most Pashtun males in Afghanistan and Pakistan File:Afghan Uniformed Police officer Noor Haya talks with an elder outside the district center in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Sept 110918-A-VB845-368.jpg|Man in Afghan clothing: perahan tunban File:Afghan children wearing traditional clothes in Kabul.jpg|Afghan children wearing traditional clothes in
Kabul File:Inside The Old Terminal Of Kabul International Airport.jpg|Men wearing perahan tunban, a form of shalwar kameez at
Kabul Airport in Afghanistan
Peshawari shalwar suit (traditional loose
Peshawari shalwar) The traditional dress of
Peshawar and other parts of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, is the khalqa (gown) which opens at the front, or shirt which does not open at the front, and the Peshawari shalwar which is very loose down to the ankles. The Peshawari shalwar can be used with a number of upper garments and is part of the
clothing of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Balochi suits The
clothing of Balochistan, Pakistan includes the shalwar kameez which when worn by males consists of a very baggy shalwar using large lengths of cloth. The kameez is also loose, and traditionally is long, with long sleeves. The present Balochi shalwar kameez replaced the earlier version which consisted of a robe to the ankles and a shalwar using cloth of up to 40 yards. The
Pashtuns in
northern Balochistan wear clothes similar to the styles worn in Afghanistan. File:Quetta.1867.JPG|Balochi male shalwar kameez, Quetta, 1867 File:Baluchistan01.jpg|Traditional Balochi suits File:Tribal Elders, April 1896.jpg|Tribal elders, April 1896 The female Balochi suit consists of the head scarf, long dress and a shalwar. File:Balochi traditional dress.jpg|Balochi traditional dress File:Baluchi dress (UBC 2013).jpg|Baluchi dress File:Balochi embroidery.png|Balochi embroidery File:Traditional Balouchi Dresses.JPG|Traditional Balochi dresses
Phiran, poots and shalwar In
Kashmir, the outfit consists of the
phiran, poots and shalwar. File:A lady at srinagar.JPG|Left and right: phiran shalwar; centre: Punjabi suits File:Bihar girl in Kashmiri dress.jpg|Kashmiri phiran File:Traditional winter dress of kashmir.jpg|A man from
Srinagar wearing phiran File:Kashmiri Muslim women in traditional long Phiran 1870.jpg|Kashmiri women in traditional long phiran 1870 File:KashmirPundit1895BritishLibrary.jpg|Kashmiri Pandits in phiran and pyjama File:Men in Kashmiri Phiran and Poots 1875.jpg|Men in Kashmiri phiran and poots, 1875
Punjabi suits The traditional shalwar kameez worn in the Punjab region is cut differently to the styles worn in
Balochistan and Afghanistan and is known as a "Punjabi suit" with the kameez being cut straight and flat with side slits (which is a local development as earlier forms of kameez did not have side slits). The shalwar is wide at the top but fits closely to the legs and is gathered at the ankles. The Punjabi shalwar is also cut straight and gathered at the ankles with a loose band reinforced with coarse material. In rural
Punjab, the shalwar is still called the suthan, which is a different garment that was popular in previous centuries, alongside the
churidar and kameez combination (which is still popular). In
Britain, British Asian women from the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent have brought the dress to the mainstream, and even high-fashion, appeal. The Punjabi suit is popular in other regions of the Indian subcontinent, such as
Mumbai and
Sindh. The popularity of Punjabi suits in India was extentuated during the 1960s through Hindi cinema. Punjabi suits are also popular among young women in
Bangladesh and are especially popular amongst school girls in India. The outfit is also popular in Afghanistan, where it is called the Punjabi. File:Jaipur-India n001.jpg|Punjabi Shalwar kameez File:Women of Puducherry.jpg|Women in Punjabi suits File:MissPooja2.jpg|Miss Pooja of the Punjab region in a Punjabi suit File:Shalvaar qamiz.JPG|Men's Punjabi Shalwaar qamiz File:Christian Girls Arriving at School, Jammu, ca.1875-ca.1940 (imp-cswc-GB-237-CSWC47-LS10-047).jpg|Girls arriving at school, Jammu, File:Picket_Line_in_Pakistan.jpg|Women in ornate shalwars File:Rohi's Women Dress - Bahawalpur Museum.jpg|Rohi (Cholistan) woman's bandhani dress (Punjab, Pakistan) File:1st Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop-9.jpg|First Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop: women in Punjabi suits File:A-punjabi-kitchen.jpg|Women wearing traditional clothes in a Punjabi kitchen: 1899 Another common type of Punjabi shalwar kameez is the
Patiala salwar which has many folds and originates in the city of
Patiala. Another style of the Punjabi suit is the use of the shalwar which hails from the
Pothohar region of
Punjab, Pakistan, and is known as the Pothohari shalwar. similar to the
chador or
phulkari that was used throughout the plains of the Punjab region. originates from the
Bahawalpur region of Punjab, Pakistan. The Bahawalpuri shalwar is very wide and baggy with many voluminous folds. The material traditionally used for the Bahawalpuri shalwar and suthan is known as Sufi which is a mixture of cotton warp mixed with silk weft and gold threads running down the material. The other name for these types of mixed cloth is shuja khani. The Bahawalpuri shalwar is worn with the Bahawalpur style kameez, the Punjabi kurta or chola. File:Nawab Muhammad Of Bawalpur 1868-1900.JPG|Nawab Muhammad of Bahawalpur (1868–1900) wearing a loose Bahawalpuri shalwar File:Prince Suba Sadiq Abbasi.JPG|Prince Suba Sadiq Abbasi, Bahawalpur File:Bed Sheets - Bahawalpur Museum.jpg|Bahawalpur kameez File:Nawab Sadiq Khan Fifth.JPG|Nawab Sadiq Khan Fifth (died 1966) in the Bahawalpuri shalwar The Multani shalwar, also known as the 'ghaire wali' or 'Saraiki ghaire wali' shalwar as it is very wide around the waist, originates from the
Multan area of the Punjab region. The style is similar to the Sindhi kancha shalwar as both are derivatives of the pantaloon shalwar worn in
Iraq and adopted in these locations during the 7th century AD. The Multani shalwar is very wide, baggy, and full, and has folds like the Punjabi suthan. The upper garments include the Punjabi kameez and the chola of the Punjab region. An older variety of shalwar kameez of the Punjab region is the Punjabi suthan and kurta suit. The Punjabi suthan is a local variation of the ancient svasthana tight fitting trousers which have been used in the Punjab region since the ancient period and were worn with the tunic called varbana which was tight fitting. The Punjabi suthan is arranged in plaits and uses large amounts of material (traditionally coloured cotton with vertical silk lines, called sussi) of up to 20 yards hanging in many folds. The suthan ends at the ankles with a tight band which distinguishes the suthan from a shalwar. offer a striking slim line resemblance to the centuries-old tight Punjabi suthan, although the
churidar is cited as its source. The tight pantaloon style suthan was popular with the Indian Cavalry during the 19th and early 20th centurie; they were dyed in Multani mutti or mitti (clay/
fuller's earth), which gave the garments a yellow colour. The kurta is a remnant of the 11th-century female kurtaka which was a shirt extending to the middle of the body with side slits worn in parts of north India which has remained a traditional garment for women in Punjab, albeit longer than the kurtaka. The suthan was traditionally worn with a long kurta but can also be worn with a short kurti or frocks. Modern versions of the kurta can be knee length. The head scarf is also traditionally long but again, modern versions are shorter. File:Nihang Singh and Nihang Singhani.jpg|19th-century Punjabi suthan suit worn by the lady on the right File:Pahari women kashmir3.jpg|Women in Punjabi suthan 1890 File:Market Place, Bikanir 1896. Woman on left in loose Punjabi suthan suit.jpg|Woman on left in loose Punjabi suthan suit File:Punjabi Sikh woman in Amritsar Punjabi suthan and short kurta 1874.jpg|Punjabi woman in Punjabi suthan and short kurta, 1874 File:GuptaDanceMusic02.jpg|Ancient svasthana and varbana outfit worn during the
Gupta Empire, the basis of the Punjabi suthan suit File:Sepoys of 20th Punjab Infantry and Hunza Gun. 1893. Men in Punjabi tight from knees suthan.jpg|Men in tight Punjabi suthan, 1893 File:Bharatpore maharajah.jpg|The Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V Bahadur (1883–1907) of Bahawalpur State in suthan File:Bertrand Blanchard Acosta in jodhpurs and goggles.tif|Bertrand Blanchard Acosta in jodhpurs and goggles The outfit in
Jammu is the
Dogri kurta and suthan. When the tight part of the suthan, up to the knees, has multiple close fitting folds, the suthan is referred to as Dogri pants or suthan, in Jammu, and churidar suthan in the Punjab region and some parts of
Himachal Pradesh. File:Dogri play Bawa Jitto directed by Balwant Thakur Produced in 1986 and still going strong.jpg|Men and boys wearing a knee length variation of the Punjabi ghuttana and Dogri kurta. The full suthan is tight from the knees to the ankles, associated with the Punjab region. File:Punjab Hills 1895. Kulu woman in churidar suthan. Himachal Pradesh.jpg|Punjab Hills 1895, Kulu woman in churidar suthan,
Himachal Pradesh Sindhi suits The traditional Sindhi Shalwar Kameez or (Suthan ain Khamis) in
Sindhi are of different styles, The Sindhi Shalwar worn by men are of three types, one is called Suthan/Salwar which is wide at waist and gets narrow below the knees till ankles where there are loosely fitted (Pācha) cuffs, it is worn mostly in upper/north of Sindh. The second type of Shalwar is (Kancha) which used to be worn usually in lower/south of Sindh and was wide down the knees till ankles where there are wider ankles (Pācha), Kancha is mostly not worn anymore or if ever worn then it does not have the that much wide ankles as the original one. The Sindhi Suthan and Kancha usually have less pleats, The third style of Shalwar is modern Sindhi suthan/salwar which do not have any pleats but is loose like
pyjamas, while some men wear Gairwari Salwar, which has many pleats and is voluminous. All the shalwars are tied at waist by Agath (
drawstring) which is made of different bright colours heavily ornated and embellished with shiny
metallic threads, beads, mirrors etc. The Salwar and Kancha's pleats are created by bringing the folds together on opposite sides. The Khamis is also made of different styles, originally Sindhi men used to wear either short or long
Angrakho which was tied at either side or in middle, the shorter one was called Angelo, and was worn by common people, the longer ones were worn by Soldiers, government officials and noblemen, other style was called Kiriyo/Puthiyo, then the short
Kurtas (tunics) called (Pehrān/Pehriyān) were commonly worn, which used to be collarless like Angrakho and was tied at either side or in middle, and had half way slit opening in front unlike angrakhas which used to be completely slit in front. The Angrakho and Pehrān/Pehriyān were also used to be embroidered with
Sindhi bhart and
mirrorwork. Above Angelo and Pehrān some men also wore (Koti,
Sadri, Gidi, Kaba) which can also be sometimes embroidered with mirrors usually borders and a heart shape design on back having initials of first and last name of wearer. while underneath the Angelo, Pehran and Khamis men wear Ganji (vest) which is also heavily embroidered with Sindhi stitches and mirrors. During
British Raj, the colllars were introduced in Sindh, the Sindhi men started wearing Pehran with collars and buttons, also during that time the english
long coats and jackets were introduced which were worn over local clothing. The upper garment of Sindhi men was mostly short either till hips or till midway to thighs, except for some rich men, but the modern Khamis reaches at least till knees, the modern Khamis can have (Gol daman) round cut at end corners or (Chokor Daman) square cut, this is now a everydays clothing of Sindhi men. The clothes are adorned with
Ajrak and
topi or Patko (Turbans), but usually on everyday life, a various coloured floral, checkered or plain piece of cloth with Sindhi embroideries and mirrors is carried over shoulders or as turban, also used as a (rumal) handkerchief, and for the protection from the heat of sun, while during winters locally
wool made shawls of different styles like Loi, Katho, Khes etc are used for warming. Sindhi women of
Sindh wear Salwar/Suthan which is almost similar those worn by men, but back in time some women of lower Sindh used to wear a very baggy Salwars called "Chareno" but these are not normally worn anymore. Many Sindhi women also wore
churidar pajamo (Sohri Suthan). Traditional Sindhi women Suthan and Pajamo are made of bright colours and rich fabrics like
soosi,
silk,
satin,
velvets and
brocades which are heavily embroidered at ankles (Pācha). The Salwars are worn with the Cholo (tunics) or Ghagho, Abho (different frocks) which are also heavily intricately embroidered with
Sindhi bhart and other embellishments called Gaj, Aggoti, Gichi, back in time the Salwars were used to be hidden under a wide Paro/
Peshgeer (Skirt), specially when a woman went outside and over the head women wore a wide and long veils called Rawo/Gandhi/Pothi/Chuni/Salur. File:Group of Sindhi girls in traditional clothes.jpg|Sindhi girls wearing traditional Sindhi dress, worn by
Soomra tribe File:Sindhi Gaj Shirts.jpg|Traditional Sindhi Cholo with heavy embroidered
Gaj worn by
Sammat group of Sindhi women File:Muslim girl karachi1870.jpg|Girl from Karachi, Sindh, in a shalwar and Choli. c. 1870. Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library. File:Baloch Man in Sindhi traditional pantaloon style 1845.jpg|Man in Sindhi traditional Suthan Shalwar File:Man in Sindhi angerkho top (1845).jpg|Man in Sindhi long angrakho (1845) File:Hyderabad, Sindh (8091058973).jpg|Two Sindhi men and a boy in Sindhi Suthan/Salwar, Pehran, Patka, Loi (Sindhi shawl), and cap and jacket File:Portret van twee onbekende mannen van een Sindhi-stam Two Sindees. Soonnee Mussulmans. Sind (titel op object), RP-F-2001-7-1122F-41.jpg|Portrait of two Sindhi men wearing Sindhi Kancha, Pehran, Ajrak and turbans on head File:PK Karachi asv2020-02 img11 Clifton Beach.jpg|A Sindhi camel driver in
Clifton Beach, wearing modern style Sindhi Kancha and Khamis and a rumal (handkerchief) on shoulder File:Muslim girl sind1870.jpg|Woman, in Sind, British India, in Sindhi slim pajamo shalwar File:Hindu girl karachi.jpg|Sindhi girl from
Karachi,
Sind, in Sindhi ghagho like cholo and narrow suthan, c. 1870 File:Portret van een onbekende vrouw van de Mohana-stam Mohana woman. Soonnee Mussulman. Sind (titel op object), RP-F-2001-7-1122F-69.jpg|Portrait of a Mohana girl in Sindhi Salwar ==See also==